Political abuse of behavioral science and mental health.
The last thing we need is wellness influencers putting themselves forward as experts in mental health issues or any other medical science leadership situations, but here we are.
This huge wellness industry seems to be thoroughly infiltrated with anti-vax disinformation, science denial, and conspiracy theories in general.1 And often uses mental health in a woke-washing tactic,2 and in upside down double standards that always serve business interests.3 It’s bad enough that mental health is often still to this day relegated to the realm of demons and figments of imagination. Anyone who tells you a health issue, mental illness or physical illness, is “purely psychological” is telling you they believe in superstition and metaphysics, they are not talking about medical science, because the brain is a physical organ, and there is no thought or behaviour divorced from the human body in scientific terms - only in supernatural or religious terms.
And where science ends and spirituality begins is where wellness influencer self-help gurus enter the picture and try to game the gap. They want to use spirituality and religiosity to promote whatever, but they still want to hang onto science sounding citations and clout. They want the stamp of approval of the public based on science, because people respect science, because it’s based in reality, and most of us care what really happens to us, in the real world.
I recently heard of this Jay Shetty who runs some kind of a coaching school,4 which frankly sounds like the coaches coaching coaches that Mallory DeMille has researched and reported on Conspirituality Podcast,5 which to me just sounds like a culty multi-level-marketing instruction for influencers scheme. I found journalist John McDermott’s Guardian article interesting if disturbing, but what really stood out to me is what he said on Conspirituality Podcast, that he said didn’t make it into the article, but that he thought people should know about. He describes that this wellness spiritual guru erroneously claimed on his website for years that he had a degree in behavioural science from Cass Business School of London. As it turns out they didn’t even have a class in behavioural science, and didn’t offer a degree in behavioural science when Jay Shetty attended.6
I think it’s also important to distinguish "behavioral science" which is "the scientific study of human and animal behavior",7 and "behavioral health" which is an American rebrand term for "mental health" healthcare services.8 The usage of mental health as a weapon to gain compliance and conformity to the preferred status quo is really revealed in the shift from calling it mental health (treating suffering) to "behavioral health" (forcing compliant behaviour).
Political abuse of psychiatry by people with power, over underclasses beneath them, is a well-known phenomenon and it is a real thing.9 It may even continue in the psychedelic therapy model, since a movement for psychedelic treatments is based in the practices of a guru who had perpetrated torture on dissidents under the claim that they would “transform dissidents into better citizens” in Mexico with psychedelic drugs.10
All should refrain from attributing things to people being insane even if what they do seems like madness because it’s then only used to smear everything as madness and it all becomes meaningless noise. Elites typically prioritize protecting the status quo over actually solving problems or helping people, unwell or not. People in charge are in fact notorious through history for favoring stability and continuity over progress, like in the case of ancient Romans failing to develop the steam engine11 when they could’ve developed a steam engine at least as far back as Heron.12 It’s one reason why it’s best to be cautious when powerful people start bandying about the word “innovation” because usually it’s just a buzzword to hype something that’s not actually innovation, it’s some decoy to argue against common sense safety regulation, come what may. Stockton Rush crying foul over regulation supposedly stopping innovation, and his ultimate end in a watery tomb should come to mind.13 It's interesting how that wasn't framed as madness. Because wealthy entrepreneurs are never mentally unstable — they're eccentric.
It’s not surprising people with power will of course look to use whatever leverage they can to manipulate to situate themselves protected from thwarting. Like the way that big corporations protect harmful products from being regulated or taken off the market, by hiring PR operatives and scientists to, as Dr. David Michaels has said,“market their studies and reports as sound science, but actually they just sound like science.”14 And the spiritual industry seems to very much want to sound like science.
Conspirituality Podcast - Brief: Unmasking Jay Shetty (w/John McDermott) - Mar 23, 2024 "It didn't make it into the article, but which I I think is important for people to know, is that on Shetty's website, for years he claimed his degree was in behavioural science. So I went to Cass Business School, and I asked them, I was like hey I did not find a class for behavioural science in your course listing, do you offer this as a degree? They don't offer it as a degree, and they didn't offer it as a degree when Jay Shetty was there. So did Jay Shetty for years claim that he was a master in behavioral science because it would make him appear to be in an expert in mental health? I don't know, only Jay can answer that. But what is clear is that he has zero qualifications as a mental health professional. So why does someone who has no credentials get to go to the White House and interview President Biden about the Biden administration's mental health initiatives? Again, zero qualifications."
President Joe Biden gave an interview to Jay Shetty’s podcast in 2023.15 Michelle Obama was on Jay Shetty’s podcast recently too.16 Sadly it’s not unusual for influencers and woo peddlers to wheedle their ways into the upper echelons of power and pamper elites for networking. I remember groaning back in the 1980s when we heard the news about Nancy Reagan relying on astrology.17 I hoped initially that it was an indulging diversion for her but apparently it influenced some material decisions. People have expressed concern about King Charles and even Princess Kate getting proper care for cancer because of Charles having a history of promoting interest in alternative medicine and pseudoscience.18 And while perhaps ironically the Trump administration’s U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams is pro-vaccine,19 pro-mask,20 and prevention of infectious disease in the workplace21 — the current Biden administration U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy expressed interest over 20 years ago in promoting a national agenda to have “alternative medicine” as equal alongside medical science.22 In Murthy’s role as Surgeon General he has promoted a wellness mindfulness app, asserting it’s needed as much as mental health healthcare services, as a tool for people to manage their own stress.23 This individualistic idea that mental health, or behavioural health, is just a matter of willpower shows up too on the CMS.gov website which says: “Everyone has the strength to make important behavioral health changes, but many people are too nervous to talk about it during a health care visit.”24
There’s a lot of money to be made by directing people toward products and services and individualist tech solutions in the $5 trillion+ dollar wellness industry,25 and a lot of tax cuts for the rich to be made by justifying cutting off funding of actual science and actual medical services and actual public health, and blaming everything on individual “choice” or failures, even when it’s about collective problems. People in charge often stymie regular people trying to deal collectively with disasters, according to disaster researchers,26 and the term is called “elite panic” when they do this.27 I guess it’s not surprising many of those same elites turn to equally dubious remedies to quell their own upset feelings when their situation feels threatened.
References:
The Guardian - The dark side of wellness: the overlap between spiritual thinking and far-right conspiracies - Extreme right-wing views and the wellness community are not an obvious pairing, but ‘conspirituality’ is increasingly pervasive. How did it all become so toxic? Eva Wiseman Sun 17 Oct 2021 05.00 EDT In 2011, Charlotte Ward and David Voas coined the term “conspirituality” in a paper published in the Journal of Contemporary Religion. Ward defined it as “a rapidly growing web movement expressing an ideology fuelled by political disillusionment and the popularity of alternative worldviews”. It describes the sticky intersection of two worlds: the world of yoga and juice cleanses with that of New Age thinking and online theories about secret groups, covertly controlling the universe. It’s a place where you might typically see a vegan influencer imploring their followers to stick to a water fast rather than getting vaccinated, or a meditation instructor reminding her clients of the dangers of 5G, or read an Instagram comment explaining that vaccines are hiding tracking devices. It’s a place where the word “scamdemic” might comfortably run up the side of a pair of yoga pants (88% polyester, £40, also available in “Defund the Media” print, “World Hellth Organisation” and “Masked Sheeple”, in millennial pink).
Anti-mask Woke-washing The moral distortion of social justice. CHLOE HUMBERT AUG 31, 2023 Woke-washing is a divisive tactic and a cognitive attack of gaslighting1 where the perpetrator often employs disinformation and a tactic known as DARVO (deny, attack, and reverse victim / offender), in order to silence the targeted victim, or to attempt to delegitimize the target in the eyes of allies, peers, or others.
The Economy First Model. Manufacturing consent to normalized harm. Chloe Humbert Mar 12, 2024 Ironically, if the disabled person has a mental health issue, that is also expected to take a back seat to the able-bodied person’s discomfort. Minimizing the real threat as mere “fear of covid” that “truncates” going to concerts and restaurants, while simultaneously raising up the value of “mourning” of travel and big parties. It has internal logic when you realize it’s all just oriented toward prioritizing economic engagement. This cognitive tactic has a name, and it’s called woke-washing, and it’s a favourite of climate contrarians and covid deniers.
The Guardian - Uncovering the higher truth of Jay Shetty - (This article is the subject of a legal complaint made on behalf of Jay Shetty.) - Celebrities call him ‘amazing’ and fans pay thousands – but what exactly do they get from this self-help guru with an iffy origin story? - John McDermott in Los Angeles - Thu 29 Feb 2024 07.30 EST As Shetty’s circle of celebrity friends expanded, so did his lines of business. In January 2020, Shetty launched the Jay Shetty Certification School, a six-month online course that trains enrollees in Shetty’s success-coaching methodology.
Conspirituality Podcast - Brief: Unmasking Jay Shetty (w/John McDermott) - Mar 23, 2024 "It didn't make it into the article, but which I I think is important for people to know, is that on Shetty's website, for years he claimed his degree was in behavioural science. So I went to Cass Business School, and I asked them, I was like hey I did not find a class for behavioural science in your course listing, do you offer this as a degree? They don't offer it as a degree, and they didn't offer it as a degree when Jay Shetty was there. So did Jay Shetty for years claim that he was a master in behavioral science because it would make him appear to be in an expert in mental health? I don't know, only Jay can answer that. But what is clear is that he has zero qualifications as a mental health professional. So why does someone who has no credentials get to go to the White House and interview President Biden about the Biden administration's mental health initiatives? Again, zero qualifications."
Cambridge Dictionary - behavioral science the scientific study of human and animal behavior
CMS.gov - U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. - Behavioral Health - A Guide to Using Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services Behavioral health is sometimes called mental health and often includes substance use. Just like physical health, behavioral health has trained providers who can help you much like a physical health care provider would.
van Voren R. Political abuse of psychiatry--an historical overview. Schizophr Bull. 2010 Jan;36(1):33-5. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbp119. Epub 2009 Nov 5. PMID: 19892821; PMCID: PMC2800147. Abstract - The use of psychiatry for political purposes has been a major subject of debate within the world psychiatric community during the second half of the 20th century. The issue became prominent in the 1970s and 1980s due to the systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, where approximately one-third of the political prisoners were locked up in psychiatric hospitals. The issue caused a major rift within the World Psychiatric Association, from which the Soviets were forced to withdraw in 1983. They returned conditionally in 1989. Political abuse of psychiatry took also place in other socialist countries and on a systematic scale in Romania, and during the first decade of the 21st century, it became clear that systematic political abuse of psychiatry is also happening in the People's Republic of China. The article discusses the historical background to these abuses and concludes that the issue had a major impact on the development of concepts regarding medical ethics and the professional responsibility of physicians.
Psymposia - Power Tripping #4: Bad Hug DECEMBER 26, 2021 What if someone tried to tell you these techniques were, in fact, a novel therapy that could revolutionize mental healthcare and transform dissidents into better citizens? In this episode, we discuss Dr. Salvador Roquet, a man who tortured people for the Mexican state and also parlayed those techniques to become an influential pioneer of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. What does it mean that Roquet’s trainings and ideologies have influenced an untold number of present-day psychedelic practitioners?
John Michael Godier’s Event Horizon: Hidden History of the Ancient World with Dr. Garrett Ryan (youtube video / audio podcast) Edited Auto-Transcript: Garrett Ryan: in the Roman World there is no industry catalyzing this development. There are innovators like Heron of Alexandria who have obviously the skills to make machines. The aeolipile heron steam engine is not very efficient in itself but the principles are all there for a practical steam engine. He could have done it if he wanted to but he didn't want to because there was no need for it, there was no demand for it. There are applications certainly for things like it - the English famously the first steam engines are pumping out mines in places like the Midlands and Wales and the Romans had their own deep mines in Spain they could have pumped out with steam engines but they never made that particular leap because there wasn't this culture of innovation there wasn't this drive to incentivize anything like it and so I think it was never likely that the Romans were going to make the leap to a Industrial Revolution just because the people running Society - the whole bent of the culture was towards stasis basically towards keeping things in the status quo keeping things stable and not in funding these madcap ventures.
Popular Mechanics: Why Heron's Aeolipile Is One of History's Greatest Forgotten Machines By Addison Nugent, Nov 29, 2020 Some debate has been put forth as to whether or not Heron was truly the first to invent the aeolipile. One Heron’s idols Ctesibius (285 B.C. - 222 B.C.) wrote several treatises on the science of compressed air and its use in pumps. Later, Vitruvius (c. 80 B.C. - 15 B.C.) described a device, also called the aeolipile, that consisted of a metal ball partially filled with water placed above a fire to produce steam forced out of an aperture at the top. But Vitruvius doesn’t describe any moving parts, a key distinction from Heron’s vision.
BBC News US & Canada - Titan sub CEO dismissed safety warnings as 'baseless cries', emails show. By Rebecca Morelle, Alison Francis & Gareth Evans, June 23, 2023 Mr Rush responded that he was "tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation". The tense exchange ended after OceanGate's lawyers threatened legal action, Mr McCallum said. "I think you are potentially placing yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic," he wrote to the OceanGate boss in March 2018. "In your race to Titanic you are mirroring that famous catch cry: 'She is unsinkable'". In the messages, Mr Rush, who was among five passengers who died when the Titan experienced what officials believe was a "catastrophic implosion" on Sunday, expresses frustration with the criticism of Titan's safety measures. "We have heard the baseless cries of 'you are going to kill someone' way too often," he wrote. "I take this as a serious personal insult." Mr McCallum told the BBC that he repeatedly urged the company to seek certification for the Titan before using it for commercial tours. The vessel was never certified or classed.
Dr. David Michaels, The Triumph of Doubt 2020 “The company's PR experts provide these scientists with contrarian soundbites that play well with reporters who are mired in the trap of believing there must be two sides to every story equally worthy of fair minded consideration. The scientists are deployed to influence regulatory agencies that might be trying to protect the public, or to defend against lawsuits by people who believe they were injured by the product in question. The corporations and their hired guns market their studies and reports as sound science, but actually they just sound like science. Such bought and paid for corporate research is sanctified, while any academic research that might threaten corporate interest is vilified. There's a word for that, Orwellian. Individual companies and entire industries have been playing and fine tuning this strategy for decades, disingenuously demanding proof over precaution in matters of public good. For industry there is no better way to stymie government efforts to regulate a product that harms the public or the environment - debating the science is much easier and more effective than debating the policy.”
The Hill - Michelle Obama: ‘I am terrified about what could possibly happen’ in 2024 election by Judy Kurtz - 01/08/24 “I am terrified about what could possibly happen,” Obama said of this year’s presidential election in an interview on Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast, released Monday.
Independent - Nancy Reagan tried to cover up White House’s use of clairvoyant, documentary claims - Josh Marcus Monday 16 November 2020 “Nancy Reagan relied on Joan Quigley, she would call her sometimes eight times a day for almost everything down to unbelievable details including the takeoff and landing times for Air Force One,” Nancy Reagan biographer Kitty Kelley reportedly says in the film. “That was astrology that charted their way. Nobody knew at the time." The public caught wind of the White House’s cosmic advsier after Don Regan, a former chief of staff, published a 1988 memoir claiming the psychic advised “virtually every move and decision the Reagans made,” triggering a media feeding frenzy and alleged attempts from the first lady to cover it up. Ms Quigley met the first lady through entertainer Merv Griffin, a client who sometimes featured Ms Quigley on his talk show.
Newsweek - King Charles III Has a History of Promoting 'Quackery' Alternative Medicine Published Sep 09, 2022 Before he became Britain's monarch, King Charles III faced criticism over the years for promoting alternative medical therapies and treatments. In 2019 for example, he received pushback for becoming a patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy. According to the Cleveland Clinic, homeopathy "believes that using extremely minute diluted amounts of plants and minerals can help the body repair itself by promoting healing." Though popular, the Cleveland Clinic says that "there's no strong evidence for homeopathy's effectiveness greater than a placebo."
Jerome Adams @JeromeAdamsMD 1:52 PM · Aug 11, 2023 Whenever we see flu cases surging, we alert the public, tell them to take precautions, and advise people to get vaccinated. So, even for the people who think Covid is “just the flu,” why are so many so opposed to us doing the same for a surge in Covid cases? [shrug emoji]
Jerome Adams @JeromeAdamsMD 6:37 PM · Mar 16, 2024 Pro tip from your friendly neighborhood road warrior: if you choose a mask up, use filtration mask if possible (eg N 95, KN 95, KF 94), and please remember, your mask does no good if it’s sitting on your chin! [steepled hands emoji, masked smiley emoji] photo of Jerome Adams wearing a black respirator mask in an airport terminal.
Jerome Adams @JeromeAdamsMD 6:48 AM · Apr 10, 2024 Prioritizing the health and safety of employees isn’t just a moral imperative- it’s an economic one. Let's put worker well-being first and make sure everyone (and not just those in the c-suite or governors office) can work in a safe environment. #WorkplaceSafety
Harvard Magazine - "Medicine changes you." Vivek Murthy '98 -- Internal Medicine Resident Ô Boston September-October 2003 Murthy's combined expertise in medicine and business (and he still might pursue an advanced degree in public health) makes him well qualified to follow through with one of his dreams: to develop a system that provides proven, affordable, integrated (traditional and alternative) healthcare in a standardized fashion. His interest in alternative medicine stems from his own cultural background - both his parents emigrated from India. Although he grew up in Miami, Murthy's frequent visits to his parents' homeland allowed him to witness that country's ancient art of healing, Ayurveda (Sanskrit for "the science of life"). "I have tried various alternative medical therapies myself," he reports, "and I have found that many alternative modalities are based in principles that make sense, and seem to frequently be effective with patients." Research in recent years has made important strides in investigating alternative medicine in the United States, Murthy says, but much more needs to be done, and he would like to be a part of that process.
Mindfulness app Calm has teamed up with the U.S. Surgeon General on a new series to help ease your end-of-year anxiety BYJennifer Fields December 1, 2022 “We certainly have to increase access to mental health care,” Murthy tells Fortune. “We have to address some of the deeper drivers of unhealthy stress in our lives including in our workplaces. But we also need to create tools that help people manage stress when it does arise.
CMS.gov - U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. - Behavioral Health - A Guide to Using Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Services Everyone has the strength to make important behavioral health changes, but many people are too nervous to talk about it during a health care visit.
Bloomberg - The Global Wellness Industry Is Now Worth $5.6 Trillion - A new report suggests the world wellness economy has surpassed Germany’s GDP in size. By Sarah Rappaport November 9, 2023 Wellness is a big, global business with $5.6 trillion in revenue in 2022, according to a new report from the Global Wellness Institute, a leading industry group. Research from the nonprofit organization said the industry has grown from $3.4 trillion in 2013; by 2027, it is expected to grow an additional 57%, to $8.5 trillion, about twice as large as Germany’s gross domestic product.
Commentary: Elite Panic vs. the Resilient Populace by James B. Meigs, MAY 2020 For the police, fear of public chaos outweighed, at least temporarily, concern for possible victims. Before dispatching those casually deputized citizens to keep order in the streets, the Anchorage police chief suspended the search for survivors in damaged buildings. “Arguably, the city was protecting its ruins from looters more conscientiously than it was looking for people trapped in them,” Mooallem writes. Disaster researchers call this phenomenon “elite panic.” When authorities believe their own citizens will become dangerous, they begin to focus on controlling the public, rather than on addressing the disaster itself. They clamp down on information, restrict freedom of movement, and devote unnecessary energy to enforcing laws they assume are about to be broken. These strategies don’t just waste resources, one study notes; they also “undermine the public’s capacity for resilient behaviors.” In other words, nervous officials can actively impede the ordinary people trying to help themselves and their neighbors. As in war, the first casualty in disasters is often the truth. One symptom of elite panic is the belief that too much information, or the wrong kind of information, will send citizens reeling.
Elite Panic. Big shots have different goals than the rest of us. Politicians should be representatives, businesses shouldn’t lead, even billionaires can’t seem to buy common sense, and tech won’t save us. CHLOE HUMBERT JUL 13, 2023 The people in high places and big positions will never panic over the right things - they do elite panic. Left to their own devices, people in charge panic over the wrong things & try to fix things other than the actual crisis because they’re often more concerned with their own position within the status quo, and are more concerned about the upheaval of the status quo, than the damage that upheaval is causing. Ordinary people tend to respond with the appropriate alarm and an impulse to do a practical emergency response to protect oneself and one’s community, but are often at odds with the status quo in doing so, and are often stymied by the very people who should be providing support and leadership. Recognizing this phenomenon is vital in determining strategies to overcome it.